Vampiric
by Seacarda Fox Shadow
Summary: The creature held his sword a little more threateningly. Rose absently wondered if the weapon wasn't a sort of security blanket.' InuYasha/Doctor Who crossover. Yes, we know the title/summary is naff. We'll fix it when we're awake. 10Rose, InuyashaKagome
1. Chapter 1

**A/N (Seacarda): **Me and my sister decided that it would be cool if we put our two favourite shows together, so we did.

**A/N (Kathryn):** Yeah, pretty much. I could go all weird and pompous and say things like "This work is a collaborative effort between Seacarda Fox Shadow and Kathryn Shadow", but she's pretty much summed it up, so... Allons-y! :D

**Disclaimer: **Neither of us own either Doctor Who or InuYasha, but it's not from lack of trying.

-BAD WOLF-

Somewhere in Japan, shadows moved.

The shadows, incidentally, were cast by seven figures, cloaked in black, practically invisible in the night. The pale moonlight struck one of them and it flinched away as if burnt.

Their target lay oblivious before them, just barely out of reach of the forest's shade. One figure split apart from the others, slipping rapidly across the thin stream of treacherous luminance to hide in the shadows cast from the structure. The other six hesitated for a moment, but soon followed suit. In a neat line, the first one a couple of feet apart from the others, they slunk around to the nearest window. The leader glanced inside before clambering nimbly through the opening, completely silent, completely unseen by those who were to be his victims. One by one, all six slipped inside the building.

A scream tore through the night, then another and another, each terrified cry abruptly cut short. There were a couple of frenzied pounds on the walls and doors as people tried desperately to get away, but not a single one managed to break free.

And then, as suddenly as the cacophony began, everything was silent.

Seven figures slipped away into the night.

-BAD WOLF-

The TARDIS shuddered as she landed, throwing her occupants to the ground despite the fact that they had been clinging to the console. This might have had something to do with the fact that the Doctor had been rudely hitting her with an obnoxiously large mallet instead of trying to fly her properly, but of course nobody thought of that.

The Doctor laughed, delighted, and got to his feet, oblivious to his spaceship's irritation.

"Where are we?" asked Rose as he helped her up, smiling a little, infected with his enthusiasm.

"No idea," said the Doctor, eyes glittering with excitement, and ran to the door. Now that the TARDIS was beginning to power down, Rose could hear the shouts of a fight outside.

"Pub?" she guessed, her delight dimming a little with the prospect. It would be just her luck if, just when the Doctor put random co-ordinates in, she landed somewhere completely ordinary. It would be only fair, after all; every time he tried to take her home, they ended up on somewhere like Raxacoricofallapatorius instead— although that might have been due to the Time Lord's incessant fear of Rose's mother.

The Doctor shrugged nonchalantly and opened the door. As soon as he poked his head outside, a large and ugly something-which-might-have-been-a-head-at-some-point flew towards him. He jumped back, startled, and it landed with a nauseating squish on the grating.

It dripped obscenely.

The Doctor sniffed dispassionately, unaware of the fact that Rose had covered her mouth and nose with a hand to keep from retching. He was equally oblivious to the glare she was giving him for whatever alien trait he possessed which allowed him to be unaffected by the stench now wafting through the normally clinical TARDIS air.

"Earth, Japan, Feudal Era," he pronounced with finality, hands in his pockets as he regarded the severed hulk.

"Right," said Rose, daring to remove her hand from her face. Her voice was slightly nasal as she fought not to breathe. "Is that bad?"

The Doctor shrugged with a noise that sounded suspiciously like "meh". "Depends," he called back as he vanished. A moment later he spoke again, presumably not to her.

"Oh, you are _beautiful!_"

Rose assumed that it would be safe for at least two seconds, stepped carefully around the head still oozing on the floor and chanced a look outside.

Instantly she darted out, closed the door and half-ran forwards to stop just before the object of the Doctor's fascination.

"You are! Look at you!" The Doctor whipped his glasses out of his pocket and put them on in one liquid motion, still grinning at the creature.

The creature in question was actually the most humanoid thing Rose had seen all day, not counting the Doctor, and looked to be about seventeen. Voluminous scarlet fabric was draped around his— well, she assumed it was a him, although there was really no telling with aliens— form. His skin was unnaturally pale, his eyes massive and golden in an angular face. Pure white hair flowed down narrow shoulders, nearly hiding twin dog's ears covered in snowy fur.

Rose's fingers twitched.

Fangs poked out from behind barely parted lips, his long fingers ended in nails that looked suspiciously like claws, and one hand grasped the sort of sword which made Rose half-wonder if he wasn't inadequate in some other way.

Meh, she'd faced worse. She reached out and touched one of his ears with a fingertip. It was almost excruciatingly soft.

He blinked at her.

Encouraged by his severe lack of a violent reaction, she caressed the ear with her fingers, feeling the smooth fur slide under her skin. Her wrist grazed his hair and that was soft too.

He flinched away, suddenly a few feet farther from her than he had been, and she pouted a little bit at the loss of the ability to pet him. The Doctor hardly ever brought her to places with furry creatures, and, bereft of the opportunity to take advantage of the situation, she was feeling just a little bit upset.

"Who the hell are you?" growled the creature— quite literally, in fact. His fangs suddenly seemed a lot bigger.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said the Doctor, straightening. "Terribly rude of us. I'm the Doctor and this is Rose. And you would be...?"

The creature held his sword a little more threateningly. Rose, coolly unfazed by the movement, absently wondered if the massive weapon wasn't a sort of security blanket.

"Why should I tell you?" he snapped suspiciously at them, golden eyes glittering malevolently.

The Doctor opened his mouth. "Well..."

Footsteps approached rapidly, accompanied by laboured breathing. "Inuyasha!" came a voice as a visually fifteen-year-old presumably-human girl came running up the hill. A bow was slung over her back, amusingly incongruous against what looked suspiciously like a school uniform. "What did I tell you about going off without me?"

"Is that your name?" asked the Doctor, apparently delighted.

Presumably-Inuyasha opened his mouth. "Kagome, I—"

"I can't take it any more!" she shrieked at him before drawing herself up to her full height, which really wasn't very much but apparently frightened Inuyasha. She inhaled slowly and purposefully, eyes blazing, and forcefully ground out one single word.

_"SIT!!"_

Without warning Inuyasha's necklace glowed and he crashed to the ground, face-first, with a rather undignified yelp.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. Rose grinned.

"Can I get one of those for him?"

The Time Lord whipped around. "Oi!"

The girl, presumably Kagome, seemed to notice them for the first time. "Oh," she said, suddenly seemingly harmless. "Who are you?"

Inuyasha dragged himself from the ground, spitting a little mud out of his mouth and glaring at the girl.

"I'm Rose and this is the Doctor," said Rose.

"Your hair's glowing," said Kagome, apparently fascinated.

Rose blinked. "O... kay," she said.

The Doctor glanced at her hair as if to check.

"I can't help noticing," said the Doctor, hands in his pockets, "that there's a large and obnoxious head currently in my spaceship."

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows, frowning a bit, and opened his mouth to say something presumably rude.

"Specifically," he carried on, "what appears to be the head of a praying mantis demon."

Silence.

"Anyone care to tell me why that is?"

Rose gave him an odd look. "Praying mantis demon?"

He turned to her. "Mmm."

"Demon?"

He nodded, opening his mouth and preparing to go on one of those rants that basically translated into calling her a stupid ape in some shape or form. She raised a hand to interrupt him.

"There were demons," she said, "in Japan?"

He bobbed his head complacently. "Well, I say demons, they were actually just a bunch of random aliens that crashed a few centuries ago. The people here called them demons and it stuck. Our friend over there—" he gestured at Inuyasha— "is a demon. Well, half-demon. Well, half-dog demon."

Rose nodded slowly.

"How do you know so much about me?" asked Inuyasha sharply, waving his sword around a little as if to remind them of the fact that he was holding one. "Who are you? And if you don't answer me, _properly, _this time..." He trailed off ominously, glaring at them.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, opening his mouth again.

"We told you," interrupted Rose for him. "I'm Rose, this is the Doctor. That's it." The Doctor glared at her a bit for the interruption of something that would surely antagonise the half-demon, but she casually ignored him. She ignored Inuyasha as well and stepped a little closer to Kagome. "So," she said. "You said 'sit' and Dogboy over there fell down. How does that work?"

Inuyasha glared at her. His ears twitched in irritation.

Kagome paused, her finger flittering up to touch her chin. "I don't really know," she said.

Rose grimaced. "Pity. Would have liked one of those on him." She gestured at the Doctor.

"Oi!"

Kagome couldn't quite bite back a laugh. Inuyasha just blinked, getting increasingly confused at his companion's casual acceptance of the newcomers.

The half-dog-demon gestured at the TARDIS with his sword. "What the hell is that thing?" he demanded, irked at being so ignored.

"Inuyasha," said Kagome warningly.

Inuyasha opened his mouth. The Doctor was apparently oblivious.

"This? Oh, this is my... spaceship," he said, abruptly giving up trying to come up with an explanation that Inuyasha would understand.

"What?" The creature looked at the TARDIS like it might bite him.

Kagome sighed. "Oh, come on, Inuyasha! I told you what spaceships are!"

Inuyasha and the Doctor blinked at her. "You did?" they asked, perfectly in unison. The half-dog-demon glared at him.

"Well," said Rose, quite sensibly she thought, "she doesn't look like she comes from around here."

The Doctor's brown eyes flickered up and down the girl for a moment. "No," he said thoughtfully. "She doesn't."

Kagome looked at them almost fearfully. Rose was getting a little confused at her apparently random mood swings. "What do you mean?"

"In fact," said the Doctor, stepping forward, "I would _almost _dare to guess that you're actually from the 21st century, Kagome. That is your name, right?"

She nodded.

"Any chance you could tell me why that is?"

"Why would you want to know?" snapped Inuyasha defensively. He waved the sword around again.

"Oh, put that away," muttered the Doctor sulkily, returning the creature's glare. "Have we tried to kill you yet?"

"No, but even so—"

"Inuyasha," interrupted Kagome. The creature looked like he was going to protest, but then turned it around and pushed it into a sheath that was far too small for the weapon. The Doctor's eyes widened in interest.

"Did you come in through the well?" asked Kagome.

"Well?" inquired the Doctor, confused. "What well?"

-BAD WOLF-

The well was, as its name suggested, a well. It looked rather abused, almost like something far too large to hold it had been shoved through. Past that, it wasn't a particularly assuming object, but the Doctor was grinning as he scanned it with his sonic screwdriver.

"Oh, that is just brilliant," he said happily. "Spacio-temporal distortion hidden under the earth. Someone dug a well, found the rift, and now..." He smiled a little more widely.

"We're the only ones who can get through," Kagome said helpfully. "Because of the Shikon Jewel."

The Doctor spun around.

"The whatsit?" inquired Rose, feeling just a bit left out of everything.

"Show me," ordered the Doctor.

"This," said Kagome, pulling at a chain around her neck to bring it out from under her shirt. A broken crystal which was probably once completely round dangled from the end, glittering in the sunlight.

"Ooh," he said. "Look at that." He started playing with the screwdriver again, turning the tip to adjust the setting before he pointed it at the glittering jewel. Inuyasha bristled.

"What is it?" inquired Rose, calculating the chances of touching Inuyasha's ears again while he was distracted.

"It's a psychic extrapolator with a telepathic complex," said the Doctor.

Rose nodded slowly. "Meaning?"

"Meaning," said the Doctor, "it takes pre-existing psychic energy and makes more of it. A lot more. And it's also bound to the telepathic signals of its owner." He grinned. "This is brilliant!"

"And it lets them fall through that rift, does it?"

"Yep!" He turned his blinding grin on her. Kagome gave them an odd look. Inuyasha blinked. "A perfect little crack stretching from here to the 21st century. Nothing else. Completely harmless."

"Might prefer that over your flying," muttered Rose.

"Oi!" said the Doctor again. "I can give you the entire universe, all of time and space, and you'd rather go through a little rift which only goes to two different times?" He pouted a bit. "You wound me."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't start that again."

"I thought the Shikon was magical," interrupted Kagome, brow furrowed in confusion.

The Doctor shrugged. "If you want to call the exacerbation of telepsychic energies 'magic'."

"But..." She looked down at the shard. "How could technology do any of this?" she asked.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows.

"It's alien," said Rose. "Isn't it?"

"Mm," said the Doctor in affirmation. "Must've come down to Earth when the demons did."

"Lord Inuyasha!" came a small voice. The half-demon glanced at his shoulder, where Rose could almost make out a miniscule figure jumping up and down in something which might have been distress.

"Oh, so you've finally shown up, have you?" he asked him, derision dripping from his tone. "It's not too dangerous for you now, is it?"

"I was visiting a monastery not far from here," said the creature. Rose stepped closer, squinting at him. He looked oddly like a very large and almost not-quite humanoid flea. "I went to collect information about the Shikon, but when I came to the place, it was ransacked!"

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows and flicked the creature away. He landed with a splat on Rose. She jumped back, but he irritatingly kept hold.

The Doctor walked over to her to get a closer look.

The flea-like creature blinked up at her for a moment before stabbing his beak-like mouth into her arm and sucking.

"Oi!" she yelped, swatting him before she thought about it. He made an odd noise and fell to the ground.

"Sorry," she said quickly, kneeling. "Are you hurt?"

"He's fine," said Inuyasha dismissively. "Happens all the time. The monastery, on the other hand..."

"Yeah," said the Doctor thoughtfully. "That sounds interesting, actually. Where is this monastery?"

The flea stood up. "May I ask who you two are?"

"I'm the Doctor," said the Doctor, sounding a little bit irritated at having to repeat himself. "This is Rose."

"Do you think that it had something to do with the Shikon?" asked Kagome, kneeling by the flea.

"Quite possibly," whirred the little creature. "The destruction was nothing like a mere mortal could produce, and whatever it was only went for the monks without touching anything in the building."

"Ooh," said the Doctor. If he had Inuyasha's ears, Rose was sure they would be pricking up.

"Then let's go," said Inuyasha. "I'm getting bored."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "And I assume that you're going to hunt down whatever it was that did this and just kill it?" he inquired scathingly.

"Well, what else am I gonna do?" he snapped back. "Sit here?"

"Actually," said Kagome pleasantly, "you could s—"

Inuyasha darted over to her and put his hand across her mouth with inhuman speed.

"Mmmph," she said, glaring at him, her entire countenance clearly telling him that as soon as he removed his hand she was going to say it.

Rose bit back a laugh.

"Where is this monastery?" asked the Doctor again.

"Like you're coming with us," snarled Inuyasha, hand still firmly clamped over Kagome's mouth. "This has nothing to do with you."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows again. "Oh, it doesn't?" he inquired.

"Mmphh mner, Mmnyshph," said Kagome. "Mrr vn—"

"I think what she's trying to say," said Rose diplomatically, "is that we could help you."

Kagome nodded fiercely, crossing her arms.

Inuyasha tensed for a moment, then rolled his eyes a bit. "Fine," he said. "See if I care." He took his hand away from Kagome's mouth and began to stalk away from her.

She made good on her silent promise.

"Inuyasha, _SIT!!"_

-BAD WOLF-

**Seacarda A/N: **This is my first story, so please be nice...

**Kathryn A/N: **Review or die a very slow death at the hands of chibi!Inuyasha.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N (Kathryn): **I apologise for the delay in this chapter. It wasn't my fault.

**Disclaimer (Kathryn): **Dunno how far Seacarda's got with the quest, but I know I still don't own anything…

**A/N (Seacarda): **I'm so sorry this took so long. It's mostly because I'm lazy.

**Disclaimer (Seacarda): **I don't own InuYasha, Kagome, Rose, or the Doctor, but that doesn't mean they won't be mine…

**(Also Seacarda): **Have fun and PLEASE!!!!! review. *.* Please. I care what you think.

**(Kathryn again): **…What she said. –points-

-BAD WOLF-

"When she says 'sit', he falls over, yeah?"

The Doctor looked over at his companion as they dodged the odd twig that their slightly canine acquaintance seemed to take pleasure in whipping in their faces. Kagome, the Time Lord was both amused and annoyed to notice, was completely and utterly unharmed by any sort of vegetation.

"How does that work?"

The Doctor caught a branch and diverted it from hitting Rose. "It's tuned in to certain frequencies. If those frequencies are detected, the necklace magnetises with the iron of the Earth's core, pulling him down with it."

"And it only works with Kagome?"

"Voiceprint. And—" He took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at Inuyasha for a moment. The little device buzzed for a moment before he switched it off again. "Deadlocked," he concluded. "Probably has a separate mechanism to keep him from just taking it off, too." He winced as he tucked the screwdriver back into his pocket. "No way out for him, he's stuck with that thing."

Rose's lips twitched. "Could you make one?" she inquired, tongue poking between her lips.

"Oh yeah. It's very si—"

He suddenly noticed that her smile had become decidedly wicked.

"Rose!"

She burst into uncontrollable laughter. "Well, I've got to keep you under control somehow!" she protested. She giggled for a moment, unable to speak. "Either that or a leash."

He just glared.

Kagome glanced back. "What's gotten into them?" she asked.

"You are not going to put one of those things on me. I might make one for you, though," said the Doctor thoughtfully. "Might stop you from wandering off all the time."

Rose scoffed. "No chance."

Inuyasha pulled back another branch, letting Kagome pass before he let go and it whizzed back towards the newcomers. The Doctor caught it easily and Inuyasha shot him an evil look.

"Who cares?" he snapped back.

There was silence for a few moments, permeated only by the soft padding of footsteps, the brush of vegetation and the barely audible sound of Inuyasha growling.

"How far away's this monastery, then?" asked the Doctor eventually, succumbing to his inability to deal with not talking.

Inuyasha didn't look at him. His left ear twitched. "Walking? We might get there tomorrow. If we're lucky."

"And running?"

Inuyasha scoffed. As if. "Couple of hours," he said. "_If_ you can keep up with me, that is."

The Doctor grinned. "Oh, Rose and I are very good at that sort of thing. Aren't we, Rose?"

"Yep." Rose bobbed her head.

Inuyasha smiled. "Your funeral."

-BAD WOLF-

Inuyasha was irritated to find that the Doctor had been right. Had the hanyou not been carrying Kagome, he could have outraced them in a second, but the girl was slowing him down.

As for the newcomers... They ran as if they went at that pace for most of their lives. They were almost to the monastery and not only did only Rose show any signs of tiring, but both of them were grinning.

Inuyasha hated them.

"I see something up ahead," shouted Kagome, pointing at a dark structure that had begun to loom between the trees ahead of them.

"That's it," said Inuyasha, speeding up. Once again, to his irritation, he failed to lose either the Doctor or Rose; they lagged a little behind, but stubbornly refused to drop out of sight.

He skidded to a halt outside the building to let Kagome off and the Doctor ran ahead, darting inside the structure. The hanyou growled his irritation and jumped through the nearest window.

"What's up with him?" wondered Rose, leaning against a tree as she tried to catch her breath.

Kagome shrugged. "Don't mind him." She smiled nervously, waving her hand as if sweeping the problem away.

Rose groaned. "Oh, not another one..."

"What?"

The girl gave Kagome a mirthless smile. "The Doctor gets like that too. Slightest bit of implied competition and off he goes." She waved one hand to demonstrate this and was silent for a few seconds (barring her still-ragged breathing) before she straightened up.

"Tell you what," she said, beginning to walk towards the monastery, "let's go and stop them before they kill each other, yeah?"

Kagome giggled. Rose slipped inside the deserted structure and grimaced as soon as she saw the interior.

She'd seen a lot of dead people before. She had, in fact, seen pretty much everything on the spectrum of "dead", from just keeling over to being torn apart and scattered across an entire field. This experience did not help her whenever she saw more dead people.

Her stomach contemplated exiting her body via her throat and she swallowed hard to try to subdue her nausea, forcing herself into some semblance of gastronomic control.

Kagome entered and gasped at the sight. She had seen many deaths too but it still took her by surprise. At least the bodies weren't terribly mutilated, she told herself.

Weren't mutilated in the least.

Were hardly touched, in fact. They looked like they could have been asleep, but they were abnormally pale. There were twin wounds on each temple and two others beneath each ear, looking as if someone had touched those particular spots with red-hot metal. The burns were blackened on the outside, red and raw in the middle, and oozed an evil-looking mixture of blood, ash, pus and an unidentifiable clear liquid.

It was far from the worst she had seen, Kagome reasoned with herself as Rose gave a final grimace and went to join the Doctor.

Inuyasha had dropped on all fours to sniff one of the corpses and now got to his feet with a scowl. "It stinks of youkai," he spat.

"Oh, I could have told you that they weren't attacked by anything from Earth just by looking at them," said the Doctor absently. He was kneeling on the floor, a monk's head cradled in his lap. He glanced up, noticing that the hanyou was giving him a Look that not only deserved capitalisation, but also completely epitomised the word 'malice'.

"Not that I'm insulting your nose," he said patronisingly. "It's a very nice nose. I'm sure it's served you well in the past. But right now—" His eyes flickered away from Inuyasha and back to the corpse— "we need to rely on something a little more precise."

Inuyasha seethed.

The Doctor dabbed his finger in the liquid coming from one of the scorch-marks before touching it to his tongue. Rose wasn't sure whether she should roll her eyes at his more "precise" method of identification or be worried about it.

"Some sort of neurotoxin," he concluded. "Destroys the ability to move without actually harming the victim." He regarded the unfortunate monk with an odd sort of awe.

A stab of fear went through her. "But you licked it," she said. "Are you gonna be all right?"

"Oh yeah," he said dismissively. "It's only a little bit; it'd take a lot more than that to knock me out. But that's not it." The Time Lord moved his fingers from the man's throat. "Touch there."

Rose frowned, but pressed gently on the indicated area.

What she felt shocked her.

Faint, weak, struggling, but there, was the unmistakable gentle fluttering of a heartbeat.

"That's..." She glanced sharply at the Doctor, dimly realising that Kagome had come over to try and see what they were doing and Inuyasha had wandered outside and now appeared to be sniffing the air again, his ears twitching as he did so. "They're still alive?"

"Technically. Sort of," said the Doctor. "The body's still basically functioning, but there's no-one inside. Nobody home."

"So what happened to the souls?" asked Kagome.

The Time Lord glanced up. "Dunno," he said. "Don't even know what attacked them yet."

"So we track them down," said Inuyasha from where he suddenly appeared, lounging casually in a dusty window-sill on the other side of the room from the others.

The Doctor made a derisive noise. "Oh, yes, that's a brilliant idea," he said, sarcasm positively dripping from the words. "Just run off after the aliens without knowing what they are or how to beat them."

"Oh, shut up," said Rose, tiring of their animosity. "It's not like you don't do the same thing every other day."

He glared.

"Inuyasha," she said, ignoring him, "can you track them down?"

The hanyou didn't answer.

"Guessing that's a no..." said Rose uncertainly.

"What's wrong, Inuyasha?" inquired Kagome, looking worried.

"The scent is gone," he said.

Kagome's eyes widened. "Gone?"

The Doctor got up. "Must have teleported out," he said. "Which, of course, leaves us with only one option..."

"Hmmm?" asked Kagome, blinking with curiosity.

"The TARDIS," said Rose.

"My spaceship," said the Doctor in response to the mildly confused look the girl gave him.

"That blue thing?" inquired Inuyasha.

The Time Lord glared at him. "'That blue thing' is a sentient spacio-temporal—" he began.

"See, this is why I want one of those necklace things on you," interrupted Rose with a sharp look that quite plainly said, _And if you don't shut up now, I'll find out how to make one myself._

The Doctor, amazingly, quieted.

"We won't get back to it before dark," said Inuyasha. "Think you can endure our company for one night?" he added, somewhat caustically.

Kagome looked at him in silent reprimand.

"I haven't got a problem with it," said Rose. "But I'm not sleeping in here." She grimaced at the not-quite-dead bodies.

"Me neither," agreed Kagome.

They eventually found a clearing just out of sight of the deserted monastery. The Doctor sat against a tree on one side, facing inwards, occasionally glancing over at Inuyasha. The half-demon sat as far as possible from the Time Lord without actually going outside the area mutely designated the one in which they were to be sleeping. His back resolutely faced the rest of the small group, although Rose could occasionally see him turn his head a little to the side to keep an eye on the Doctor.

Rose rolled her own eyes.

"Well, this is gonna go on all night," she muttered as she wriggled a little bit on the earth. It failed to conform to the shape of her body.

"We could always go back if you're not too scared," said Inuyasha snidely, voice harshly splitting the darkness.

"Oi! Shut up, Dogboy."

Surprisingly, he did. Rose was almost disappointed, but was somewhat interested to learn that he did, in fact, have a spark of intelligence underneath all that snarky bravado.

Or perhaps it was because he seemed to have suddenly scented something utterly fascinating.

He muttered something, jumped to his feet and ran off, leaving two people confused and one staring after him sadly.

Rose pushed herself into a sitting position and scooted over to Kagome. The raven-haired girl was regarding the place Inuyasha had been a second before with an odd combination of melancholiness, smouldering anger and resigned acceptance— an expression Rose knew all too clearly.

"What is it? Where's he gone?" she asked her.

"Kikyo," said Kagome, saying the word with a bitter venom which Rose also recognised. "He's gone to meet Kikyo."

"But I thought he wasn't gonna leave you alone with me and the Doctor," she objected.

Kagome snorted with something that was most decidedly not amusement. "Not if _she's_ here."

"And who is... she, exactly?"

Kagome started doodling in the earth with a twig.

"You can tell me, Kagome," encouraged Rose. "It's all right."

The girl refused to look her in the eye, but eventually spoke. "They used to be lovers, a long time ago. Naraku deceived them and Kikyo shot Inuyasha, imprisoning him to a tree for 50 years."

"And he still goes off to meet her?" demanded Rose.

"She died soon after he was caught, and we all thought that was the end of it. But a while back, an ogress found a way to bring her back to life, tried to get her to work for her."

Rose was silent.

"As soon as it was discovered that she was alive..." Kagome trailed off for a while. When she spoke again there was a dark bitterness to her words. "As soon as Inuyasha found out, he went running back to her. He just forgot me." More doodling.

"Yeah, I've got a story a bit like that," said Rose, shifting and lowering her voice. "The Doctor ran off with some French tart once, left me on a dead spaceship with my ex-boyfriend for company."

Kagome half-smiled, looking at the other human. "Dead?"

"Long dead, by the time I was born."

"Brought back to life?"

"Nope, he went back to when she wasn't dead yet."

Kagome paused. "Are you her reincarnation?"

Rose laughed a little. "'Course not, don't be silly."

The girl's lips twitched. "Then my situation is worse."

She eyed her sharply. "Kikyo and you...?"

Kagome nodded. "I am her reincarnation."

"That's not possible," insisted Rose. "There's no such thing as reincarnation, that can't be right."

"I look like her," said Kagome. "And I have her powers. The Shikon Jewel which she died holding was inside my body since... forever." She paused for a moment. "How else can you explain that?"

There was silence for a few seconds.

"I dunno," admitted Rose eventually. "But the Doctor might. Do you mind if I ask him about it?"

The girl shrugged.

Rose got up and stepped over to the Time Lord, who appeared to be absolutely fascinated with a twig.

She crouched next to him. "Kagome says that she's the reincarnation of someone named Kikyo," she told him.

He glanced up at her. "That's impossible. No such thing."

"Yeah, well, apparently they look alike and have the same skills."

She paused for effect. "And Kagome was born with the Shikon Jewel embedded inside her, while Kikyo died holding it."

The Doctor got up suddenly, the twig forgotten as he practically bounded over to Kagome.

"Who is this Kikyo?" he asked of her. Kagome blinked with shock, and then she shrank away, just a bit.

"She was... She was a powerful miko. She guarded she Shikon Jewel," she explained, a little shakily.

"Which was with her when she died?"

"Mmhmm," she answered.

"And was found again inside you?"

Another quiet affirmative.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes a little as he looked at the dirt. "I wonder..." He glanced up again, looking Kagome in the eye. "Do you mind if I take a look at your mind?"

The girl looked at him quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"He wants to enter your mind and take a look around," clarified Rose. "He wants to figure this whole reincarnation thing out."

Kagome bit her lip a little. "Does it hurt?"

"No," said the Time Lord and his companion in unison.

"With some people, it would," added the Doctor. "Amateurs. Or careless monsters. I happen to be neither."

"It could be that this whole thing with Kikyo can help us figure out what's going on with the aliens," chimed in Rose. "It's all right. And if you don't want to do it, you don't have to."

The girl swallowed. "I'll do it," she said, voice sounding small even in the noise-enhancing darkness.

"Okay," replied the Doctor. He put his hands on either side of her head, index and middle fingers resting on her temples and ring and little fingers nestled under her ears. "If there's anything you don't want me to see, Kagome," he began, "anything at all, just imagine a door in front of whatever it is and close it. I promise I won't try to get in."

"O-okay," she said, nodding.

"Okay," said the Doctor, and closed his eyes. Kagome's eyes unconsciously slid shut as well and she frowned a little.

"Ooh," commented the Time Lord, grinning. "You've got a lot of psychic energy stored up in here, don't you?"

"Eh?"

"You do. Can't see how a human like yourself can even keep it all in." He giggled a little. "That's brilliant..."

"Focus, Doctor," interrupted Rose.

"Right. Sorry."

The Doctor smiled softly to himself as he saw a flicker of Inuyasha-related thought flit across his path before it was forcibly shoved inside a room and not only kept behind a closed door, but a locked and electrified one. He thought he saw some barbed wire and machine guns as well.

Amusing, but not something he needed to think about. Instead, he followed the strands of glowing energy to their centre, where a silent connection pulsed like a heartbeat.

"There we go," he murmured, mostly to himself, as he carefully delved into the radiant globe, sifting through it until he found...

"What the hell are you doing?" demanded a voice, suddenly and harshly enough to break the Doctor's concentration. He rapidly withdrew from Kagome's consciousness; she'd be a bit disoriented from the sudden severance, but he had a nasty suspicion that the source of the interruption would be more irritated the longer he was within five feet of the girl.

He blinked, a little dizzy himself, and eventually the imposing figure of a certain hanyou swam into his vision.

"Hello," he said pleasantly.

The imposing figure of a certain sword swam into his vision.

"Ah," he added.

"I thought you stank of youkai," snarled the canine humanoid.

"You really can't be polite at all, can you?" he muttered under his breath, a little irked.

"Inuyasha," managed Kagome.

"What the hell were you doing to Kagome?"

"I was just taking a quick look at her mind, that's all..."

Inuyasha made a derisive noise. "The hell you were," he retorted. "Stealing her soul, more like."

The Doctor regarded the sword, Kagome's state of partial consciousness, Inuyasha's unforgiving gaze, and Rose's inability to safely rescue him from the aforementioned sword once it was sent in his direction by the aforementioned hanyou.

This, he thought, was not good.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N (Kathryn): **I apologise for the delay in this chapter. It was my fault.

**Disclaimer (Kathryn): **Still nothing. Sigh.

**A/N (Seacarda): **I'm so sorry this took so long. It's mostly because I'm lazy.

**Disclaimer (Seacarda): **I don't own InuYasha, Kagome, Rose, or the Doctor, but that doesn't mean they won't be mine…

**(Also Seacarda): **Have fun and PLEASE!!!!! review. *.* Please. I care what you think.

**(Kathryn again): **…What she said. –points-

-BAD WOLF-

Inuyasha swung his sword again, this time slicing a tree but missing (once again) the Doctor.

"Now, I know it looked bad," the Doctor attempted to explain to the raging hanyou. The sword came for him again and he ducked. "Really bad."

Having deduced that the only practical use she could be in deflecting the canine humanoid would be to revive his companion, Rose was attempting to wake up Kagome.

"This isn't the best time to take a snooze," she insisted, shaking the girl gently, hoping that humour would help where shouting had failed.

Ideas flashed in the Doctor's head, all of which involved knocking Inuyasha out in some way and then tying him to something so he would have no choice but to listen to the Time Lord. Kagome, having come into a vague kind of half-consciousness but was still unable to move, was having her own problems: everything in her head was everywhere. She didn't even remember thinking most of this stuff; she just knew that she had to put it all back.

The Time Lord stumbled and fell as the hanyou made another wild slash in his direction, amber eyes flaming with fury as a deep growl began to tear itself from his chest. The Doctor got to his feet, but wasn't sure what he was to do once he got there; he rambled through his thoughts, twitching past any ideas that were superfluous or impossible. What should he do? What _could _he do? How would he do it? Distracted by the constant attacks with no tangible way out, he tripped over his own thoughts. If only Kagome's mind had been strong enough to withstand the rapid reversion of the telepathic contact—

_Kagome! _That was it!

"Rose!" he shouted, taking advantage of a brief pause in the hanyou's attack. "Wake up Kagome!"

"I'm _trying!_" Rose shouted back. "What do you think I'm doing? Dancing a jig?"

The Doctor let loose an irritated huff and ducked. "Well, I'm sorry if my full attention is not _always _on you, Rose Tyler. In case you hadn't noticed, there is a very ticked-off hanyou with a very large sword who is trying to kill me!"

"Really? I didn't see him," Rose snapped back, and started to gently shake the girl again. "Come on, Kagome, wake up," she urged her softly, taking her by the shoulders and moving her back and forth— softly, so as not to provoke—

"Get away from her!" shrieked Inuyasha. He might have also called her something incredibly rude, but the TARDIS— being a polite old ship who disliked vulgar language even if she had no qualms against violence— chose not to translate such things. His lips moved, but all she heard was Japanese.

Judging by his expression, or maybe it was the Doctor's, she didn't want to know what he had just called her.

But she didn't have time to think about that. The enraged— what had the Doctor called him? Hanyou?— was facing very firmly towards her now, sword raised in preparation for a blow that she knew, she _knew _would not strike the girl behind her. His attacks might look sloppy when compared to the Doctor's flawless reflexes (well, how could your reflexes be anything _but _flawless when you could detect an attack through the time-lines seconds before it actually happened?), but Rose could just feel it. He loved this girl too much. His swordplay would be the most precise in the universe if she was one of the things at the end of his blade.

Rose, on the other hand, was not so lucky as to have earned that level of affection.

"Kagome, now would be a good time," she said, shrinking back towards the girl and the scant measure of protection the proximity gave her, even if that advantage was only in her head.

Dimly, she recognized the Doctor howling a negative, beginning to run towards Inuyasha in the hopes of intercepting him. But he was too late.

Rose closed her eyes tight against her impending demise—

—and the most beautiful sound in the world came from just behind her.

"Inuyasha," breathed Kagome.

One of the hanyou's ears flicked, automatically tuning in to the girl's voice. Exactly three milliseconds passed, during which nothing moved, nothing breathed, nothing existed.

"Sit."

And the creature crashed to the ground.

**A/N: to tell the truth, this as been done for months but I was to lazy to remember where it was. Sorry.**


	4. Chapter 4

Discaimer: ... We do not own Inu Yasha, Kagome, The Doctor, and/or Rose.

(A/N Seacarda) I am so sorry this took me so long! enjoy!

Kagome was fast asleep inside of her warm sleeping bag. Inuyasha stood near the tree closest to her, watching over her with soft eyes. Every time there was a sound, no matter how slight, one of his ears would instantly flick around to determine what it was; when it inevitably amounted to naught, the canine flaps would slowly rotate back around to fixate on Kagome. Every now and then, the hanyou would shoot the Doctor a look, clearly meaning something along the lines of "The only reason you're not dead right now is because Kagome would sit me directly into the Earth's core, but take one step closer and I will personally tear both your hearts out through your throat, you got that?"

Needless to say, the Doctor got that, and therefore didn't do anything threatening. He was, in fact, quite innocently sitting next to Rose, watching the hanyou with wonder in his eyes- and slight irritation, whenever the object of his stare decided to give him one of the aforementioned doomy looks.

"You can't get over it, can you?" the Time Lord faintly heard his companion ask.

His trancelike state abruptly broken by her voice, he inhaled as if breaking out from underwater and looked at her, confused. "What?" he asked her.

Rose nodded over to the half-demon standing guard over his companion. "Him," she said, a yawn hanging in her words. She drew the back of her hand over her open mouth, trying to stifle the involuntary pulmonary action and failing. The resulting noise from her yawn caused the hanyou's ears to twitch over in her direction.

"What about him?" the Doctor asked in return, looking back and forth between Inuyasha and Rose.

She raised an eyebrow at him for a moment, clearly amused. He was the Doctor; he could be fascinated by a _rock_, here was a half-human half-alien-dog-monster-thing _hybrid_, and he somehow couldn't understand why she was even bringing it up. "Never mind," she said, and turned away. Before he could pursue the subject, she curled up in a neat little coil on the ground.

The Doctor, being the truly _incredible _alien being that he is, couldn't understand why she was firmly asleep in roughly fifteen seconds. We, being human fools, can instantly recognize that it must have been the fact that she didn't even _know _when she had last closed her eyes for more than a second. Also, the fact that she was travelling with a creature who hardly needed to sleep at all (and didn't quite seem to get the whole "humans are frailer than you, so stop running around once in a while and let them rest" thing) didn't help.

The Time Lord frowned at her, turned back to the hanyou and continued to mentally catalogue all the genetic impossibilities of the creature before him until dawn struck.

As soon as the sun started to peek over the horizon, pale, cold and sulky at having to get up this early, Kagome heard Inuyasha say her name. She thought for a moment that she must still be dreaming- he'd _never _say her name like that-, but after a moment she felt his hand on her shoulder. The clawedappendage shifted, shaking her gently back and forth.

"Kagome, wake up," he said lightly into her ear. "We need to go."

"Inuyasha?" Of course it was him. She was just being silly and sleep-deprived. "Noooooo…" she whined, as if she were no more than a 5-year-old girl that had to go to school. Man, her head hurt. Stupid Doctor. He hadn't even found what she was looking for.

"Wake up!" Inuyasha snapped, dropping the murmuring voice of a few seconds ago. The grating tone that was his natural voice was a little too loud for her throbbing head. He shook her more insistently now. One day, she thought fiercely, _she _would wake _him _up when he was tired and groggy and in possession of a truly wicked headache. See how _he _liked it.

"Inuyasha! Please!" she said as loud as she dared, just to get his attention. As soon as he stopped shaking her, she went back to a whisper. "My head hurts."

Inuyasha's ears twitched at the final word. He uncurled his clawed fingers from her shoulder and let out a small sigh. "Fine," he said. "Just sit up, then. You can sleep on my back"

Couldn't she just stay here in her warm sleeping bag? The answer to that was quite clear: no, she couldn't. Reluctantly, she turned over to face Inuyasha and held her arms outstretched to him, closing her eyes to block out the light. The hanyou picked her up as if she weighed nothing at all and gently shifted her into a bridal-style hold. Before Inuyasha could even think about how to get the sleeping bag packed with Kagome in his arms, Rose and the Doctor did it for him. His ears went back and his eyes hardened, but his silent gratitude was made grudgingly clear. Kagome had, for various reasons, had been moved to Inuyasha's back; there she slept as peacefully as one could expect, considering she was threaded round the spine of a walking half-demon. Said half-demon was walking every carefully so as not to wake her, but she was still occasionally roused into consciousness despite all his efforts. Rose found his soft side for Kagome cute, and had the insane urge to close the gap between them to interrogate him about her- and pet his ears again. The Doctor's oh-so-superior mind, however, held at least 50 different things ranging from how a human could find attractive an alien who could change at any minute into a dog the size of a small town, to rice pudding. One of the more practical things running through his head was on the subject of the aliens; where did they come from? What were they doing here? And the one question that almost drove him mad, _what were they?_ Clearly they were unique, something he hadn't encountered before, and his blood positively itched with the desire to discover what they were. He just had to find out!

"We should go back." The mumble that slipped past his lips was barely audible to _him_; Inuyasha heard it loud and clear, though, and looked back sharply.

"What was that?" he growled, ceasing his perambulation to glare at the Time Lord. Rose uncertainly halted as well, darting nervous eyes between the two males.

The Doctor snapped from his reverie just in time to stop before he ran into his companion. "Hmm?" he asked.

"We should do _what?_" inquired Inuyasha darkly, turning fully to face the time travellers.

The Doctor had to think about this for a moment. What was he talking about? Ahh, right. Turning around.

"Oh," he said, very slowly to avoid antagonizing the halfbreed even further, "I was just thinking... maybe we're heading the wrong way. We should go back." He indicated the direction he desired, pointing back to where they had come from and scratching the side of his nose as casually and nonthreateningly as he could manage.

Nonthreatening though his nose-scratching was, Inuyasha was clearly upset. They had spent all morning going to this other monastery, the "next possible target" or whatever, and now he wanted to go _back?_

"Go back?" he said through his formidable teeth. Rose to a step back, thinking about the other night, when he had gotten so angry; he was encumbered by his human cargo, but she wasn't going to risk his desire to keep her comfortable outranking his desire to kill them. She inched away even further, bumping into the Doctor as she did.

"Yes," snapped the Doctor, as if the hanyou was stupid. "Y'see, this whole let's-go-to-the-next-monastery-over-and-hope-they-show-up isn't the best plan in the world. We don't know their patterns, we don't know their plan of attack. We could be sitting in that place for days, waiting for them to show up when they've been casually decimating the rest of the country." He paused for breath. "Now, I'm sure your nose is amazing, but you lost the scent back there, didn't you?"

Inuyasha glared.

"That's why we've just been wandering around. You can't tell where they're headed, they've just vanished into thin air, but you didn't want to say it, so you just pretended you knew what you were doing. Look at this place." He waved a hand about to indicate the forest around them. "Nobody's come through here for ages. There's no crushed vegetation, no scent, certainly no bodies. But I _can _sense a very large bucket of psychic energy right where we're going, which means... you're just guessing."

Rose tensed. Inuyasha's ears were pressed flat against his skull, and he was just about to start yelling when Kagome shifted, a slight whimper escaping her lips. He thought better of it, and decided instead to show the time travellers exactly how intimidating a visually seventeen-year-old (give or take) half-dog-monster could look.

The Doctor's companion glanced up at him. "Why do you want to go back, though?" she questioned. "I mean, yeah, it's not a definite they'll show up there, but if it's a bucket..." She shrugged. "He might have an idea there."

"This is true. However," he enunciated carefully, "as I have previously said, although this is a very good chance it's still a chance. And even if it does pan out and they are there, we're hardly void of psychic energy ourselves. Me, they could feed off me for a few years. Kagome's a regular powerhouse, Rose completely _absorbed _the Time Vortex which definitely did something with her psychic energy, and... well, I haven't actually checked you, Inuyasha, but I'm willing to bet there's a nice bunch of it stored up in your head too. I'm good at disguising mine, and individually we're not worth tracking, but if we go anywhere near one of their attacks? If they catch us?" He shook his head. "Better to get back to the TARDIS, go back in time, see who they are in a way that is completely foolproof."

"Agh," Rose said. "You do realize that now you've said the word 'foolproof' something's going to go terribly, terribly wrong?"

He stared at her like she'd sprouted wings. "That only happens in science fiction, Rose," he said, very slowly, as if she were speaking complete nonsense.

His companion thought about mentioning the fact that he was an insanely old alien from Rassilon knew where and they travelled around time and space in a sentient spaceship, and wasn't that a bit sci-fi-ey? But, after some thought, she decided against it. He wouldn't listen anyway. He never did.

"Anyway, the point is we don't know what these things are yet, and I'm just suggesting that the best course of action might not be running up to somewhere where they _might _show up and-"

"Swinging a big sword in their faces when they do," Rose finished for him, and lick her lips thoughtfully.

"Precisely. I know it sounds insane to you," the Doctor told Inuyasha, "but this may still be a simple misunderstanding. We need to give them that chance."

There was an intense moment in which nothing happened and Rose looked pointedly at a tree. The Doctor's intense gaze and the hanyou's half-furious glare meeting with almost tangible cracklings of malice were a little too much for her; but the tree wasn't glaring at anyone yet, so that was fine.

Just when Inuyasha was about to open his mouth and yell something that probably would have initiated some kind of trouble, such as, "No why in hell are we going back!", Kagome spoke softly.

"Inuyasha, I'm feeling better now," she informed him weakly. "The Doctor could be right. We should go back."

Inuyasha's ears (and if you haven't been counting it's been ? times) went back. Now, you know as well as we do that if Kagome were standing on her own two feet and feeling just okey dory, then Inuyasha would have yelled in reply; but with things being the way they were, he just mumbled something that sounded suspiciously vulgar and started off back down the path from which they had just come.

Now that Kagome was awake, he took pleasure in going faster, and was irritated that his increased speed did not lose those pesky time travellers.

(A/N Seacarda) Its not as long as I wanted it to be but I got an email saying I hadn't updated for a year! I was like OMG! T.T I feel so bad! anyway I hope you enjoyed. if my (evil) teachers don't give me so much homework as to kill me, I hope to up date very soon! thank you for reading and your patience! (bow)


	5. Chapter 5

A/N it took us long enough but we did it! Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **we do not own anything. Nothing is ours. We wish we did but we don't.

It took far too much time than it should have to get Inuyasha into the blue box. Predictably, Kagome was what finally spurred him into trying it; her curious nature, combined with the wondrousness of the vehicle before them, ensured that she couldn't resist the ship for long. She entered, delighting in the fact that she was in a time travelling machine of all things—yeah, she dealt with time travel every day, but that was just between two points!  
The moment Kagome was fully inside the box, Inuyasha wandered in, his ears twitching, unsuccessfully trying to listen to every sound that echoed in the never-ending halls. The Doctor and Rose followed close behind, the former taking a deep, long-suffering breath; the girl, at least, seemed to be taking it well, but her canine companion... well. The Time Lord continually glanced at the boy's sword, thinking of all the damage that could be done to his precious TARDIS if the half-youkai were to be tipped over into rage again.  
Rose went and stood by the fascinated schoolgirl. "Like what you see?" she asked quietly.  
Kagome stood still for a moment, twitched, and finally jumped up and down in excitement. "I'm in a spaceship! A real spaceship!"  
The Doctor grinned proudly, weaving around the other three to start fiddling with the console, bonking things and twisting doodads.  
His actions caught Kagome's eye. "Where are we going?" she asked—not with trepidation; rather, she seemed to be entertaining a private hope that they were travelling to some unknown planet, far into the future.  
Inuyasha, on the other hand, seemed much less enthusiastic.

Inu Yasha couldn't stand being inside the blue box. He quickly found, to his annoyance, that his sensitive ears couldn't handle all of the new and disturbingly cacophonous sounds the monstrosity was making. Not even Kagome's world was this noisy, he thought, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the walls like they had personally offended him somehow.  
Speaking of the girl, she seemed to be absolutely fine with this horrid machine—no, not just fine. She was _excited_ about it. She was constantly going around the room, firing off question after question, trying to understand what each button did, memorizing all of the colors that the lights made. Rose was smiling; her answers to Kagome's questions carried an air of pride in the blue box about them, of enjoyment in the young girl's interest.  
"Looks like someone is fond of the TARDIS," Rose said in an undertone to the Doctor, who was keeping a careful eye on Inu Yasha and his sword.  
"She's only been able to travel through two timeframes; this opens up a whole new world to her," he said absentmindedly. "Besides, who couldn't be fond of the TARDIS? She's magnificent."  
Rose snickered at him a little.  
The cold metal floor seemed to be bothering Inu Yasha's shoeless feet and he seemed more on edge than he had been before. The Doctor's overactive imagination had no problem picturing the hanyou slicing through the TARDIS in seconds. He pursed his lips a little, worried, and tried not to notice the way the other creature's clawed fingers kept twitching towards the hilt—a nervous habit, he hoped, and not an outright threat.  
"Where are we going?" Kagome asked, transfixed by a red glowing button that the Doctor didn't remember being there before.  
"We are going," the Doctor said, giving the button an experimental punch, "to visit our new friends face to face." The button, as far as he could tell, didn't have any particular function; he covered his disappointment by twisting a few knobs. The TARDIS started making a whirling roar and shook violently, throwing all but the Doctor and his companion off of their feet. Inu Yasha clung to the cold railing for dear life, his ears laid flat against his skull, his teeth bared in a half-growl. Kagome had also managed to stumble her way to the safety rail, hooking an elbow around the topmost bar and holding on with all her strength—but instead of mingled fear and anger she was visibly filled with daring excitement, laughing and smiling. Rose glanced over to her from her place at the console and shared a grin with the younger girl, pleased that at least one of the newcomers was enjoying the ride as much as she did.  
The Doctor, meanwhile, kept pressing the unexpected button, trying to detect any small difference it made in the ship's flight. He stubbornly kept pressing it, ignoring the amused half-trills in the TARDIS's roar, until the ship come to an abrupt stop. The Doctor let go of the control panel and sprinted to the door, only remembering the concept of his horrible driving skills at the last moment. A little more cautious, he stopped and opened the door slowly; poking his head outside before daring to let the others see where they were.  
Kagome frowned. She saw that it was nighttime, but they had gotten in the machine right before the sun had set; she didn't doubt the Doctor's word that the TARDIS was, indeed, a time machine, but it looked as if they only had gone forward a few minutes. She tilted her head a little and stepped towards the door, trying to see if there was any visible change to the surroundings that might mark the passage of time, but she couldn't see anything particularly telling that there was.  
The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, followed by Rose and Kagome, respectively. Inu Yasha, clearly annoyed at being the last one out (and at having to go inside in the first place), barely restrained himself from shoving them all out of his way as he made his own way outside. As soon as he was away from the blasted thing, he darted to a tree and leaned on it, almost giving it a hug as he breathed in its familiar scent and familiar noises and familiar habits of not knocking him around like a particularly unloved toy. His ears twitched, alert, and then relaxed; he was just far enough to get away from the sound emanating from the TARDIS (that only _he_ could hear, of course), but still close enough to see Kagome.  
Perfect.  
-

The group split up to watch for these "new friends". Kagome looked for a place where she wouldn't be spotted and where her scent wouldn't be found (not something she would have considered once, but dealing with youkai and their relatives on a daily basis had added some priorities). Because Inu Yasha wasn't going to be able to protect her, she couldn't afford to get caught. After a long search and a splash along a stream to confuse her scent, she finally found a tree that she could both climb and sit in—which would also allow her a good viewpoint. Pleased, she trudged across the water once more for good measure—she could never be _too_ careful, after all—and began her ascent.

Climbing into the tree proved harder than she thought, though; the large yellow backpack was weighing her down, but she couldn't leave it on the ground—someone might find it and then spot her. Kagome gritted her teeth, thoroughly annoyed, and grimly continued. After a few minutes, she finally made it to the first branch only to hang from it by both arms; she was too weak to completely pull herself up. She sighed; irritated at herself, at how badly she had just failed to climb something as simple as a tree. Before she could completely give up or start to think of what to do next, a hand grabbed her backpack and pulled her up onto the branch.

Kagome let out a small yelp of surprise and fear.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Kagome blinked, her eyes suddenly met with a pair of golden ones.

"Inu Yasha?" she asked, oddly confused with the annoyance in his face. "What are you doing here?"

He put her down on the branch, letting her lean against the trunk of the tree. "Shouldn't I be the one asking that?" he asked, a little sharply. "Where have you been? I was worried."

Kagome took her pack off to let it sit on the sturdy bough. "What do you think I was…" She stopped.

_...Did he just say he was worried?_

As she stared at Inu Yasha, wondering if she had heard right, she found that Inu Yasha had moved much closer. His eyes softly traveled her face, studying it with precision and more care than she'd ever seen out of him—more than she'd thought him capable of. Before she could ask what he was looking at—or for—, he had closed the remaining distance between them, locking his lips with hers. Smoothly, as if it were completely natural, he shifted forward, trapping her between the trunk of the tree and his body—but maybe "trapped" was the wrong word; she didn't feel restrained, she felt... (safe) she didn't know what she felt.

Kagome's body almost went limp with shock, sagging against him while millions of thoughts buzzed through her head—she should stop him she should pull away and demand to know what the hell was going on—but none of them moved her body to perform even the slightest hint of resistance. Instead, dazed, she let him slide his hands down her sides until they rested on her hips. She could feel his claws gently graze her flesh, the sensation making her heart pound. Her knees shook, almost buckling under her. Inu Yasha smirked against her lips, apparently knowing the effect he was having on her.

_This is better than I thought it would be. _

Kagome couldn't believe what she was thinking. She'd never tried to imagine what it would be like to kiss Inu Yasha. Never.

Not even once.

A voice came through the woods. "Kagome! Kagome, come back—I made a mistake! Oh, wow..."

The Doctor had come through the bushes in a state of semi-panic to be greeted by the two people snogging in a tree. Inu Yasha pulled away with a sharp motion, leaving Kagome breathless as she tried to answer the Time Lord.

"Doctor? What are you doing here?" Kagome could feel her complexion change pretty quickly to a bright rosy color; heat prickled along her skin and she stared intently at her feet.

The Doctor opened and shut his mouth a few times, obviously thinking of what he should say and how to say it. He sighed, giving up, and simply said, "I'm sorry."

Meanwhile, Rose and Inu Yasha waited at the TARDIS. The half-youkai had once again taken his place by the tree, safely away from the blue box and its noise. His ears twitched in every direction, listening for the footsteps of a certain young lady; he had wanted to find her himself, but the Doctor was worried that he would do something to ruin their future or past or something. Inu Yasha hadn't really understood what the Time Lord told him before he took off to find Kagome, but he did say something about changing her life; whatever that meant, it didn't sound good. Finally he heard a movement and the dark-haired man came running through the bushes with the girl in tow.

"We have to get out of here," the Doctor said abruptly as he literally hopped in to the police box, "now."

Inu Yasha scowled at the thought of reentering that thing, but soon joined the other three in the ship. As he stepped in he went and stood by Kagome, looking somewhat like (but certainly not admitting it) a small puppy afraid of getting in a car. He quickly noticed the splotchy flush she got when he stood near her.

"Kagome," he said bluntly, "your face is red. Are you sick?"

As he asked that incredibly stupid question (something else he wouldn't admit), he absentmindedly put his hand to her forehead to feel for a temperature. Kagome held her breath and looked away from her traveling buddy, her blush deepening as his claws accidentally brushed her skin.

"You don't seem to have a fever..."

Then, there it was: a scent. Someone had had their hands all over her—her clothes were absolutely drenched in the smell. It was a youkai scent, male and strangely familiar. The scent reminded him of Sesshomaru, but there was something missing, or perhaps added in, or... what _was_ it?

"Kagome, what happened?" he asked angrily. Kagome didn't seem like she was going to answer.

The Doctor decided to intervene. "Nothing," he said quickly. "I mean, obviously _something_, but—She had a run in with a very friendly… dog demon that helped her into a tree... so she could hide." He finished his somewhat awkward sentence with a flash of his smile and a hit of a button, which made the TARDIS jump into movement. Inu Yasha was about to argue, but found himself thrown from his feet again at the sudden jolt.

A/N we both hope you enjoy this chapter as much as we did writing it


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